Who Will Cry When You Die?: Life Lessons From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

by Robin Sharma

if you don’t act on life, life has a habit of acting on you.

To live happier, more fulfilling lives, when we encounter a difficult circumstance, we must keep shifting our perspective and continually ask ourselves, “Is there a wiser, more enlightened way of looking at this seemingly negative situation?”

Remember, if your life is worth thinking about, it is worth writing about.

Remember, happy people have often experienced as much adversity as those who are unhappy.

I would much prefer spending the rest of my days expanding my human frontiers and trying to make the seemingly impossible probable than live a life of comfort, security and mediocrity.

as Booker T. Washington said, “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

Stress itself is not a bad thing. It can often help us perform at our best, expand beyond our limits and achieve things that would otherwise astonish us.

What we focus on will determine our destiny and so we must start focusing on the good stuff.

As William James, the father of modern psychology, observed, “We don’t laugh because we are happy. We are happy because we laugh.”

To live your life to the fullest, start taking more risks and doing the things you fear. Get good at being uncomfortable and stop walking the path of least resistance.

Reading good books creates much the same phenomenon. When you expose your mind to the thoughts of the greatest people who have walked this planet before you, your game improves, the depth of your thinking expands and you rise to a whole new level of wisdom.

Deep reading allows you to connect with the world’s most creative, intelligent and inspiring people, twenty-four hours a day.

If you have not read today, you have not really lived today. And knowing how to read but failing to do so puts you in exactly the same position as the person who cannot read but wants to.

Taking the time to truly understand another’s point of view shows that you value what he has to say and care about him as a person. When you start “getting behind the eyeballs” of the person who is speaking and try to see the world from his perspective, you will connect with him deeply and build high-trust relationships that last.

“A problem well stated is a problem half solved,” said Charles Kettering.

“Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it,” observed David Starr Jordan.

I have heard many motivational speakers say, “Knowledge is power.” I disagree. Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is only potential power. It transforms itself into actual power the moment you decisively act on it.

You will never be able to eliminate a weakness you don’t even know about. The first step to eliminating a negative habit is to become aware of it. Once you develop an awareness about the behavior you are trying to change, you will be well on your way to replacing it with one that is more helpful.

Words are like arrows: once released, they are impossible to retrieve. So choose yours with care.

The person who does not ask has no chance.

While almost any reading will improve your mind, in a world where there is too much to do, you must be selective in the books you read.

Connecting with such works for even a few minutes a day will keep you centered on what life is really about and will ultimately profoundly affect your character.

Over the years, I have found that spending time alone in natural surroundings connects me to the larger universe around me and restores my spirit in this hurried age.

Greatness comes from beginning something that does not end with you.

you cannot have all that you want if you remain the person you are. To get more from life, you need to be more in life.

the person who tries to do everything ultimately accomplishes nothing.

We are not our thoughts. Instead, we are the thinkers of our thoughts. We are the creators of the thoughts that flow through our minds and, given this fact, we can change our thoughts if we choose to do so.

Have the wisdom to savor the simple things. The wonderful memories that they bring will add more value to your life than any of the material toys we spend so much life energy pursuing.

We really don’t discover how powerful and resilient we are until we face some adversity that fills our minds with stress and our hearts with pain. Then we realize that we all have within us the courage and the capacity to handle even the greatest curves life may throw our way.

the people who know the most, who have achieved the most and who have lived the most are also the people closest to the ground. In a word, they are humble.

Practicing humility shows that you respect others and reminds us that there is so much for us yet to learn.

the more you are as a person, the less you need to prove yourself to others.

Recreation is tremendously important to a balanced life. But recreation must serve to re-create you. Recreation must restore you and bring you back to life.

Most people don’t really fail, they simply give up trying.

As Seneca observed, “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”

Carving out a little time for yourself is not a selfish act.

Replenishing your inner reserves allows you to give more, do more and be more for others.

Making the time to care for your mind and spirit will keep you balanced, ent...

Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul…

The value of a great quote does lie in the fact that it contains a world of wisdom, wisdom that may have taken the author many years to arrive at, in a line or two.

One of the timeless secrets to a long, happy life is to love your work.

When you love your job, you discover you will never have to work another day in your life.

Albert Schweitzer said, “There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.”

Mahatma Gandhi understood the service ethic better than most. In one memorable story from his life, he was traveling across India by train. As he left the car he had been riding in, one of his shoes fell to a place on the tracks well beyond his reach. Rather than worrying about getting it back, he did something that startled his traveling companions: he removed his other shoe and threw it to where the first one rested. When asked why he did this, Gandhi smiled and replied: “Now the poor soul who finds the first one will have a pair that he can wear.”

Do not wait until you are on your deathbed to realize the meaning of life and the precious role you have to play within it.